Sunday, September 10, 2006

How To Schedule a Film Festival Like A Crazy Jay

Yesterday, most of you VIFF'ers were taking a look at this year's great lineup schedule and thinking to yourself: wow, there are so many great films here. How in the heck do I plan a whole festival to see as many films as possible? Well, perhaps you could do what I do!

Since I am full-timing the festival, I want to get the most out of the entire schedule by planning to see anywhere from four to six films daily. That means that I want to have a new film, every day, all day long. And my friends, it is not easy to plan. Scheduling the VIFF takes work, and I have created a fool-proof way of planning an entire film festival in under a day or so. This will sound difficult by explanation, but I feel if you give this process (a pictured example posted at right) a try it will give you the most options for your festival.

1. First things first, open up Microsoft Word, Notepad or a writing program that allows you to copy and paste. Now open up viff.org and go to the films page.

2. Go through the entire VIFF catalog and select the films that you want to see. Read about the films and mark off as many as possible and don't be afraid to pick one that you are even slightly interested in. Copy or type these titles into your Word document. If pasting on Word, make sure that when you paste, you hit the "Keep Text Only" option to avoid mis-formatting the document. It prints out easier this way.

3. Once you have selected all of the films that you want to see, open up another word document and copy/paste your selections over to this document. Now you want to open up the respective films pages for each entry and cut/paste over two things: the main information (running time, country, director) as well as the venue information. You'll notice in the example that I copy/paste both of these directly from the page and then paste "keep text only" to

4. Once you have finished this (and trust me, it will take a while), open up a third Word document. This one will be entitled "All VIFF Wants By Day". What you want to do first is write out each festival day (Thursday, September 28th right through to Friday, October 13th). Next, go to every selection, one at a time, and cut and paste it into the respective days. (ex. Away From Her has three scheduled shows, so you want to put an entry into Sep. 30, Oct. 1 and Oct. 2) Next, to make your day-by-day look a bit cleaner, reduce the size of the showtimes that are on the different days (ex. for the September 30th screenings of Away From Her, reduce the Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, and vice versa on the Oct. 1 screenings). This way, when you start slotting in your titles, you will know the alternate showtimes which will help you plan your day.

5. Next, open up yet another Word document and title it "VIFF 2006 Day by Day Schedule". This is the fun part: you will now slot your titles into each day and line everything up for your daily screenings. Again, copy over from the respective days and make sure to leave the alternate showtime listed on every entry in a smaller font size in case of a cancellation, you are sold out of a show, or wish to reschedule for whatever reason.

6. Print out a copy of your day by day schedule, your all VIFF Wants by day and be ready to cross out, add films and reschedule everything like mad. It's all part of the fun!

That's it! Again, this sounds difficult when I explain it, but the sorting from one document to the next WILL be very helpful in keeping as many daily screenings as possible.

Tip:

- Always keep a notepad or scrap paper handy to write down important information. This is essential to help you keep your scheduling on track.
- The Granville 7 is what I like to refer to as Ground Zero, which is THE place to be for festival screenings. Make this cinema your first option for scheduling shows as it is easy to move around from one show to the next.
- Screen #7 at Granville is the largest screen, holding 664 seats. It has a great wide-screen, THX certification and Dolby Digital sound. Whenever possible, book your screenings in this theatre as it will be easier to get tickets for these shows.
- As much as I love the Ridge, it is a chore to commute out to and you may not be able to get back in time for an evening show if you head out there. It is best to plan a screening there if it is the last one, or you plan to see both evening shows in a row. The Cinematheque and

An upcoming blog post will focus on what you need to know about every venue at VIFF.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to scheduling!

Jason
efilmcritic.com

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